Marking five years

STOCKTON - Twenty-seven thousand dogs and cats later, a unique, under-the-radar nonprofit organization is celebrating its fifth year of operation.

Kevin Parrish

STOCKTON - Twenty-seven thousand dogs and cats later, a unique, under-the-radar nonprofit organization is celebrating its fifth year of operation.

When the ACT Spay and Neuter Clinic opened in 2009 on Alpine Avenue, it was a shoestring operation aimed at reducing the city's domestic animal population through sterilization, not euthanasia. It still is.

"It all goes back to watching 'Bambi' as a child," said Sue Pixler, a retired attorney and executive director. "It impacted me."

So much so that she has carried on the leadership of ACT, an acronym for Adoptable Cat Team that was founded in 2000.

The midtown clinic opened nine years later, thanks in part to a $60,000 start-up grant from PetSmart Charities and mentoring from the Humane Alliance, a nationally recognized nonprofit group focused on high-volume, high-quality, low-cost sterilization.

The Asheville, N.C.-based Humane Alliance has provided the model for ACT, the only nonprofit of its kind in the county. The key to staying viable is through volume made possible by the lowest possible pricing.

Even though the word "cat" is in the group's original title, it has altered dogs from the start. An anniversary celebration of ACT's first five years is planned for Saturday.

The group was founded by the late Holly Pyle and her partner, Michael Leach. Leaders who helped establish the clinic included Linda Castepenalli and Rose Hilliard, who ran Lodi Cat Connection a decade ago along with Pixler.

"We were in Lodi. They were in Stockton. When she passed away, Michael contacted us to complete Holly's wishes with the grant," the 57-year-old Pixler said. "She left some money. Between her bequest and PetSmart, we had enough money to start the clinic."

Today, it employs 12 people - most of them part time - and has four veterinarians who work one or two days a week.

The ACT Spay and Neuter Clinic works with the Stockton Animal Shelter.

In 2012, thanks to another PetSmart grant, the nonprofit organization targeted the 95201 ZIP code in midtown, a "hot spot" or high-intake area for pit bulls and cats. The clinic mounted an aggressive marketing campaign and offered to fix cats for $5 and pit bulls for $15.

The veterinarians altered 1,200 animals that year, and the shelter noted an almost 10 percent reduction in the two species from the 95201 ZIP code.

On a busy day, the clinic fixes 24 to 30 animals. And there are specials: every second Saturday of the month is known as "Caturday."

The prices aren't particularly lower, but Pixler and the leaders at ACT have generated buzz about this special day for getting felines fixed. "It has generated its own momentum, and weeks ahead I get phone calls about whether there is space," she says.

Pixler estimates that the spay-and-neuter nonprofit is closing in on 27,000 animals altered since opening five years ago. The clinic's website states that ACT "is absolutely committed to our mission of ending the killing of over 18,000 homeless dogs, cats, kittens, puppies and all feral cats every year at San Joaquin shelters by preventing future births of unwanted litters."

Pixler is joined on her three-member board of directors by Stockton attorney Richie Aranda and Lisa Roldan, an instructional specialist for the Stockton Unified School District.

"I have an image of us on the river shore rescuing animals," she says. "You have to think what we are doing is rescuing them from a bad life.